Rhys Trenhaile of Manor Realty said he and friends of his found the survey hard to understand, complicated and time-consuming. He said he’s worried people will be deterred from completing it.

“It’s completely inaccessible. It’s gobbledygook. It’s so confusing that I’m getting a headache just looking at it. It makes it completely inaccessible to Joe Public,” Trenhaile said. “I think my number one thing isn’t even on that list. I want the hospital to stay within Windsor’s boundaries. And I can’t even express that on the survey.”

The online survey provides a list of considerations for the new hospital site — such as neighbourhood compatibility, proximity to existing emergency services and parking — and asks members of the public to rank them by priority. There is also a space for additional comments at the bottom of the survey.

Each of the considerations has a paragraph of text providing a bit of explanation to the person completing the survey. An example: “The geotechnical conditions of the site must be suitable to bear the load of the intended project and the groundwater not impact basement use of the building if proposed.”

In an email sent to Windsor Regional CEO David Musyj, Trenhaile said he was concerned the average person wouldn’t realize how important things like helicopter access are compared to some of the other considerations.

“When would the average citizen, including myself, know that helicopter access is more important to a new hospital than say proximity to the USA?” he wrote.

Musyj said the survey is complex because the issue is complex. The site selection steering committee wanted to give the public the exact same list of factors the committee itself is using in order to be as transparent as possible, he said.

“We did not in any way want to change the criteria or the definition of the criteria because then someone could say, you didn’t show us the actual document you used to select the site. So yes it is detailed, but it also shows how detailed the process is,” Musyj said.

Musyj also pointed out that it’s unusual for the public to even get the chance to provide input on the selection of a hospital site.

“No one’s ever done this before, in the sense of sharing this information with the community. Ever. In the province of Ontario, in the dominion of Canada. So yes, this is different, and yes it is difficult and yes it is complex.”

Musyj said more than 400 people have responded to the survey so far. Only a couple of them have provided feedback saying they thought it was too complicated, he said.

Find Windsor Star on Facebook]]>http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/mega-hospital-site-survey-too-confusing-local-man-says-with-video/feed0Rhys Trenhaile is concerned the survey to help determine the location of a proposed mega-hospital is too complicated, Wednesday May 28, 2014. Trenhaile would like to simplify the survey so everyone can have a say. (NICK BRANCACCIO/The Windsor Star) See Brownell story.clairebrownellWeekend events to draw thousands of visitors to Windsorhttp://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/weekend-events-to-draw-thousands-of-visitors-to-windsor
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/weekend-events-to-draw-thousands-of-visitors-to-windsor#commentsTue, 27 May 2014 18:57:07 +0000http://blogs.windsorstar.com/?p=348591]]>Get ready for crowds this weekend, with three major events bringing visitors to Windsor from around the world.

Between the FINA Diving World Series, the Canadian Union of Public Employees Ontario’s annual convention and the Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix, downtown businesses are preparing to welcome thousands of people. Downtown Windsor BIA chair Larry Horwitz said all the visitors are great news, with local hotels booked solid.

“Everybody’s really benefiting. It’s a major influx in terms of millions of dollars for downtown and the local economy,” Horwitz said. “This is the exciting time to be downtown in Windsor.”

A few years ago, CUPE Ontario started holding its annual convention in Windsor every other year to do its part to help the city recover from the recession, president Fred Hahn said. CUPE has more than 8,000 members in the Windsor region and Hahn said the city means a lot to the union.

“This community went through a very difficult period. We wanted to do our part to contribute to the local economy,” Hahn said. “Our members are very proud of this city and this area.”

CUPE is working with the downtown BIA on a coupon program, where convention delegates receive coupon books with deals at local businesses. The BIA is also supplying the coupon books to the visitor’s centre so people here for the diving world series can participate too, Horwitz said.

In addition to more than 1,000 CUPE members who will attend the conference, about 400 people from more than 20 countries are coming to Windsor to work on the international diving competition. Event manager Jeff Feeney said the competition has also sold hundreds of tickets to spectators who will be coming from as far away as Texas.

Feeney said it’s exciting to work with a new host city this year.

“We were limited to a few select pools for so many years, because FINA had regulations that had to be respected. But now, Windsor building a facility like this, it’s a whole new option in a new part of the country,” Feeney said. “It’s been a real breath of fresh air working with everyone here in Windsor. They’ve been so co-operative and they go over and above here at the pool.”

]]>http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/weekend-events-to-draw-thousands-of-visitors-to-windsor/feed0GT and GTS race cars prepare to race at the Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix, Sunday, June 2, 2013. (DAX MELMER/The Windsor Star)clairebrownellOptimistic outlook for Windsor housing, rental market: CMHChttp://blogs.windsorstar.com/business/optimistic-outlook-for-windsor-housing-rental-market-cmhc
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/business/optimistic-outlook-for-windsor-housing-rental-market-cmhc#commentsFri, 23 May 2014 01:54:30 +0000http://blogs.windsorstar.com/?p=347149]]>Things are looking good for Windsor’s housing market in general and the rental market in particular, according to a spring outlook report released by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

Erica McLerie, a senior market analyst with the CMHC and the author of the report, said the area is gaining jobs and starting to recover from the population loss it suffered during the recession. Meanwhile, housing prices remain the lowest of any urban area in Ontario, attracting retirees and other people from out of town.

“The worst days and the most recent downturn are past and things are moving forward,” McLerie said. “Employment has been trending higher over the last couple of years.”

As young people get jobs and move out of their parents’ houses and retirees who aren’t ready to buy a house move in to the area, demand for rental housing will increase, according to the report. Since there isn’t much new rental housing being built, the average rent is on track to increase to about $800 per month this year, with apartment vacancy rates falling.

The report predicts the average housing price will rise 3.4 per cent to $186,000 this year, rising a further 2.7 per cent in 2015. Resale home sales were down in the first quarter of 2014 because winter temperatures lasted longer than normal, but they’re on track to pick up this spring and summer, McLerie said.

Find Windsor Star on Facebook]]>http://blogs.windsorstar.com/business/optimistic-outlook-for-windsor-housing-rental-market-cmhc/feed0For Sale signs on Windsor lawns. (Windsor Star files)clairebrownellFederal court throws out bridge company lawsuithttp://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/federal-court-throws-out-bridge-company-lawsuit
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/federal-court-throws-out-bridge-company-lawsuit#commentsWed, 21 May 2014 19:03:25 +0000http://blogs.windsorstar.com/?p=346632]]>The Ambassador Bridge Company came to the wrong place with its lawsuit against the City of Windsor over the vacant houses it owns on Indian Road, the Federal Court of Canada has ruled.

In a decision released Wednesday, Judge Michel Shore threw the lawsuit out, saying the federal court doesn’t have jurisdiction to decide whether or not Windsor’s property standards bylaws apply to more than 100 vacant and boarded-up houses the bridge company owns in the city’s west end. He ordered the bridge company to pay the city $25,000 for legal costs related to the lawsuit.

“It is plain and obvious that the application lacks a reasonable cause of action and that it is bereft of any possibility of success,” the decision reads. “It is extremely unclear what exactly the Applicant is asking of the Court.”

That’s one less bridge company lawsuit before the courts, but there are still many others. The federal court decision noted the company can bring up the issues it raised in other ongoing litigation before the Ontario Superior Court, including two appeals to be heard in September of decisions made by the city’s property standards committee related to repair orders the city slapped on the houses.

Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis said the lawsuit was a waste of everyone’s time.

“It’s consistent with every time the Ambassador Bridge files a lawsuit. It’s always a frivolous attempt to try to distract from the real issue,” Francis said. “The federal court has told them, in this case, it won’t work.”

Bridge company president Dan Stamper and lawyer Larry Lowenstein did not return calls requesting comment.

The federal court application was part of a flurry of legal activity following a lawsuit filed against the bridge company by neighbours of the boarded-up houses, alleging the company had created a nuisance by failing to keep the houses occupied and in good repair. Not long after the lawsuit was filed, the bridge company sent workers in to remove siding and perform other work on some of its properties in the area.

The bridge company’s ultimate goal is to build a twin span of the existing bridge directly over Indian Road, which would also require an expanded customs plaza. In addition, the company owns houses along Edison Street and Bloomfield Road that back onto a rail corridor, where the bridge company has previously discussed building a ring road to feed the new bridge.

The bridge company is also seeking an injunction in U.S. District Court to stop the U.S. Coast Guard from granting a permit for the proposed publicly-owned Detroit River International Crossing bridge.

Find Windsor Star on Facebook]]>http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/federal-court-throws-out-bridge-company-lawsuit/feed0Boarded up homes next to The Ambassador Bridge on Indian Road. (Windsor Star files)clairebrownellHeritage Village to celebrate black history with new cabinhttp://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/heritage-village-to-celebrate-black-history-with-new-cabin
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/heritage-village-to-celebrate-black-history-with-new-cabin#commentsWed, 21 May 2014 03:02:07 +0000http://blogs.windsorstar.com/?p=346215]]>Essex County’s Heritage Village is adding a cabin that celebrates a central figure in Canada’s black history.

The cabin will be a replica of the residence of Esther Malawice Banks, who was — according to family lore — the daughter of Major General Sir Isaac Brock and his cook Almania Malawice, a princess from Ghana. Documentation shows Alawice travelled with Brock from England to the Caribbean and then Canada, with Banks born in Amherstburg on June 14, 1812.

A few weeks later, the war of 1812 broke out and Brock was killed. Banks settled in Colchester with her second husband Erving Banks and had five children, including Anthony Banks, Canada’s first black constable.

Elise Harding-Davis, who promotes awareness of the Windsor region’s black history, said the cabin will help the Heritage Village celebrate diversity.

“I think it’s a wonderful opportunity for the Heritage Village to become multicultural,” Harding-Davis said. “It’s a part of Canadian history that hasn’t been dealt with that should be.”

The Heritage Village, which is on Arner Townline about nine kilometres south of Highway 3, will hold grand opening ceremonies on Saturday, May 24 at 1 p.m. The ceremony will include a tour of the cabin.

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the Heritage Village is in Amherstburg.

Find Windsor Star on Facebook]]>http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/heritage-village-to-celebrate-black-history-with-new-cabin/feed0Elise Harding-Davis (JASON KRYK/ The Windsor Star)clairebrownellWomen back-billed by Enwin for years of inaccurate water chargeshttp://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/women-back-billed-by-enwin-for-years-of-inaccurate-water-charges
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/women-back-billed-by-enwin-for-years-of-inaccurate-water-charges#commentsSat, 17 May 2014 01:43:56 +0000http://blogs.windsorstar.com/?p=345185]]>A Windsor woman is fighting a $350 Enwin fee for retroactive water charges after the utility company realized her meter hadn’t been reading accurately for years.

Lynne Meanney, a high school secretary, said she received a letter from Enwin saying she needed to book an appointment with a representative because her water meter was faulty. Her bill following the appointment included the charge of about $350 for years of water use she hadn’t paid for because of the faulty meter’s inaccurate readings.

Meanney said she shouldn’t face retroactive charges for the company’s faulty equipment and billing mistake.

“I’ve already been paying them. If you didn’t charge enough … (that’s) not right,” she said. “They said, ‘We can work out a payment plan.’ I said, ‘I don’t want a payment plan. I don’t want to pay this.'”

In an email, Enwin spokeswoman Barbara Peirce Marshall said Meanney had an older type of meter that the utility company has been trying to identify and replace since 2006. Enwin replaces between 3,000 and 4,000 of these meters every year and “a small per cent of these show a discrepancy that affects the customer bill,” she said.

“This is a routine situation — one that we have addressed with other customers. In these cases, the customer is not being billed for anything he or she didn’t use, and we work closely with our customers facing this situation, to offer help through monthly payment arrangements,” Marshall said.

Meanney said Enwin should forgive the billing discrepancy after a few years have passed. Otherwise, people will be hit with big bills they might not be able to afford, she said.

“I can pay it, but that’s not the point. It’s the principle,” she said. “What about people who are out of a job, or unemployed, or on welfare, or making minimum wage and can’t afford that? That’s just highway robbery.”

Find Windsor Star on Facebook]]>http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/women-back-billed-by-enwin-for-years-of-inaccurate-water-charges/feed0Lynne Meanney displays a disconnection notice she recently received from Enwin Utilities. The company recently re-assessed her meter reading and found she had been under-billed for water over the last 20 years. She's fighting about $360 in retroactive charges. (DAN JANISSE/The Windsor Star)clairebrownellTemporary foreign worker ban for Windsor on the table: Reporthttp://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/temporary-foreign-worker-ban-for-windsor-on-the-table-report
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/temporary-foreign-worker-ban-for-windsor-on-the-table-report#commentsFri, 16 May 2014 20:36:00 +0000http://blogs.windsorstar.com/?p=345534]]>The federal government may be considering eliminating the temporary foreign worker program entirely in Windsor, but people with a stake in the issue say that would be a mistake.

On Thursday, The Canadian Press reported that the federal government held a closed-door meeting with business representatives and labour officials, presenting various ideas for fixing the troubled program. According to the report, one of the ideas suggested was banning employers in regions with high unemployment, like Windsor, from hiring temporary foreign workers.

In an emailed statement, a spokeswoman for employment minister Jason Kenney said she couldn’t confirm that eliminating the program from areas like Windsor was on the table, but Canadians can expect more reforms to the program soon. Kenney has already brought in several reforms, such as requiring employers to pay a fee to apply for approval to hire temporary foreign workers and insisting that they can’t pay the workers less than the wage Canadians would make doing that job.

“Minister Kenney met with employers and labour organizations to further hear their views on the … program,” the email said. “We will have more changes coming in a few weeks.”

Kenney has been under fire after employees working at banks, fast food restaurants and other Canadian workplaces went public with claims they were replaced by temporary foreign workers. He faced days of questions in the House of Commons about a statistic showing the number of temporary foreign workers in the Windsor region doubled from 2011 to 2012, despite the large number of local job-seekers.

The Star has reported that there is a sizeable black market for under-the-table migrant work in the region, with the Canada Border Services Agency detaining and deporting dozens of non-Canadians for working without authorization in the Windsor region every year while rarely taking action against the contractors and employers who hire them. The Star has also reported that Windsor-Sarnia manufacturers have hired temporary foreign workers on longer-term contracts to do professional and high-skilled jobs like marketing, human resources management and engineering.

University of Western Ontario economist Mike Moffatt said it’s clear the program needs reform. However, he said banning Windsor region employers from using the program might be “throwing the baby out with the bath water.”

“Minister Kenney pointed out that some of these people are coming in because they’re repairing specialized machinery and they’re the only people in the world who have that skill. Which may be true in some cases, in which case it would be a very bad thing to start to block these off,” Moffatt said.

“I don’t think it’s going to be the case that we’re just going to go OK, we’re just not going to allow any more overnight. There are legitimate uses for this program.”

Moffatt said part of the problem is the program is trying to accomplish too many things at once. He said it might make sense to expand the separate Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program, which currently admits workers from the Caribbean and Mexico to work as farm labourers, and refine the rules for various streams for workers with skills that are unavailable in Canada.

Ken Forth, the president of the organization that administers the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program, said any restrictions on temporary foreign workers would be devastating for the agricultural industry. He said the government can’t make any changes to the seasonal agricultural program because it was grandfathered in by the World Trade Organization, which generally doesn’t allow countries to place restrictions on who can participate like the ones that are built into the program.

“If agriculture lost any form of the temporary foreign worker program — how clearly do I say this — it would be over for horticulture,” Forth said. “There are a lot of Canadians who rely on the seasonal agricultural worker program for their jobs. If you have a full-time truck driver working on your farm driving the stuff to Loblaws, if you don’t have people to pick the crop, what do you need to deliver?”

Migrant worker advocacy organizations and unions agree with employers on this issue, but for different reasons.

Unifor, the United Steel Workers and the group Justice for Migrant Workers have all called on the government to hold employers of temporary foreign workers to the same labour standards as employers of Canadian workers and to help migrant workers achieve permanent immigration status instead of banning them.

Shelley Gilbert, the co-ordinator of social work at Legal Assistance Windsor, said the focus should be on reforming the program to protect migrant workers and sanction those who abuse them. A key reform she supports is allowing workers to change employers.

Under the current rules workers whose employers are abusing them have to choose between going home, putting up with it or working under the table under threat of jail and deportation.

“The impact on the temporary foreign workers themselves has got to be considered,” Gilbert said. “I realize the government feels ultimate responsibility to Canadians that are here, but you’ve encouraged foreign workers internationally to come to our country. I think that has a huge impact on how Canada is regarded internationally as well.”

]]>http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/temporary-foreign-worker-ban-for-windsor-on-the-table-report/feed0Jason Kenney, Minister of Employment and Social Development, has been on the defensive over the foreign worker program. (Canadian Press Files)clairebrownellTemporary foreign workers hired for trades, professional jobs in Windsor areahttp://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/temporary-foreign-workers-hired-as-managers-firefighters-engineers-in-windsor-area
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/temporary-foreign-workers-hired-as-managers-firefighters-engineers-in-windsor-area#commentsThu, 15 May 2014 01:45:48 +0000http://blogs.windsorstar.com/?p=344579]]>Candice-Rose Gagnon spent a year trying to find work in Windsor after graduating – twice – from specialized college programs in marketing.

Eventually, Gagnon gave up and went back to school again out of town. So it made her pretty mad to learn that since 2011, the federal government has authorized local manufacturers to hire two temporary foreign workers as sales, marketing and advertising managers.

“I didn’t even get one interview. It’s been a long process. The only options I had were go on welfare or go back to school,” said Gagnon, 26. “It makes me feel disgusted. How can I have support in my government?”

Gagnon was one of three young people with degrees or experience in marketing who called The Star with similar stories about plastering the city with resumes to no avail. And it wasn’t just marketing jobs that went to temporary foreign workers.

While thousands of Windsorites were looking for work, manufacturers in the region hired dozens of temporary foreign workers to fill high-level jobs for terms of longer than a year, new data from the federal employment ministry reveals. The federal government gave local manufacturers permission to hire temporary foreign workers to work as a firefighter, a human resources manager and two mechanical engineers, among other jobs.

Mike Moffatt, an economist at Western University who has studied the issue, said he was surprised by the jobs on the list.

“There would seem to be a large gap in how we’re training local people. It’s surprising to me when we have eight per cent unemployment in Windsor,” Moffatt said. “Why can’t we train somebody in Windsor to take these jobs? There may be a reason, but it’s not obvious to me what it is.”

The numbers come from the second set of data that Human Resources and Skills Development Canada has released to The Star since the growing number of temporary foreign workers in Windsor became a hot topic in the House of Commons. Employment Minister Jason Kenney has been on the defensive about the temporary foreign worker program following a series of controversies after employees working at banks, fast food restaurants and other Canadian workplaces went public with claims they were replaced by temporary foreign workers.

The temporary foreign worker program and the seasonal agricultural worker program allow employers to hire people from other countries if they can’t find Canadians to fill positions. Once they are here, the workers are only allowed to work for the employer who hired them and have to leave the country if they quit, which many experts and advocates say leaves them vulnerable to abuse.

In an emailed statement, a spokesman for Kenney’s office said the government approved some of these positions – including the firefighter – before the ministry made reforms to the program. Those reforms include requiring employers to pay temporary foreign workers minimum wage or the “prevailing wage” for the job, requiring employers who rely on temporary foreign workers to implement a plan to transition to Canadian workers and introducing fees for application processing.

The newly released data shows that nine out of 10 of the 1,923 workers hired by Windsor-Sarnia manufacturers since 2011 were here on contracts shorter than one year. More than half of the jobs were in food and beverage processing or general farm labour, and about an eighth of the positions were specialized equipment repairmen brought in to fix broken machinery.

The data also shows that Windsor-Sarnia manufacturers hired more temporary foreign workers over the past three years than any other Southwestern Ontario employer.

The data doesn’t include the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program, which brings hundreds of people from Mexico and the Caribbean to work in low-skilled jobs at Essex County farms and greenhouses every year, or employment sectors other than manufacturing. The Star has asked for data for all sectors and programs, but has not yet received it.

About one-third of the 151 Windsor-Sarnia temporary foreign workers hired to work for manufacturers on contracts longer than a year since 2011 were machinists or machining and tooling inspectors. Workforce WindsorEssex executive director Tanya Antoniw said she wasn’t surprised to hear that, since employers have said they have difficulty finding qualified machinists in the region.

“There has been difficulty attracting people to certain positions. It’s a skills gap or a skills mismatch, perhaps. Depending on what type of software they’re using, there may not be the workforce they’re looking for.”

Antoniw said her organization works with local educational institutions to make sure they’re adapting to the changing needs of the manufacturing industry. Another challenge is convincing students to consider these jobs when they’re planning their career paths, she said.

“I think it’s getting the word out there that those positions are available, that they are rewarding careers and that the technology and innovation that’s happening out there is exciting.”

But Gagnon pointed out that both the University of Windsor and St. Clair College are graduating classes of students trained in business, marketing and skilled trades every year. She said it’s difficult to understand why employers needed to hire temporary foreign workers to fill positions like “administrative manager” and “retail and wholesale buyer” while her friends were packing up moving trucks because they were unable to find good jobs here.

Gagnon said it makes her wonder if she should consider leaving the country to work herself.

“When it comes to these jobs that are hard to find to begin with, it just poses the whole question – should I even be in Canada to begin with? Should I be trying to find work overseas?” Gagnon said. “I would love to return to Windsor at any point, but after this revelation, this just makes me sick.”

This story has been updated to correct an error. Candice-Rose Gagnon got her two marketing diplomas at Loyalist College, not St. Clair College.

Find Windsor Star on Facebook]]>http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/temporary-foreign-workers-hired-as-managers-firefighters-engineers-in-windsor-area/feed0Jason Kenney, Minister of Employment and Social Development, has been on the defensive over the foreign worker program. (Canadian Press Files)clairebrownellWho’s running?http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/whos-running
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/whos-running#commentsMon, 05 May 2014 21:48:54 +0000http://blogs.windsorstar.com/?p=341433]]>Who’s running locally?

Windsor West

Incumbent Liberal cabinet minister Teresa Piruzza will be up against Conservative candidate Henry Lau, a local businessman, and NDP candidate Lisa Gretzky, a public school board trustee.

Windsor-Tecumseh

People aren’t exactly lining up to challenge Percy Hatfield, the former Windsor city councillor and broadcaster who won the seat in a byelection last August. Robert de Verteuil, who ran against him for the Conservatives, says he won’t run this time. In an email, Progressive Conservative Party spokesman Alan Sakach said the party “will be holding a nomination in very near future for Windsor-Tecumseh.”

The Liberals haven’t scheduled a nomination either. Jeewen Gill, who ran for the Liberals in the byelection, did not return phone calls to say whether he plans to run again.

Essex

NDP candidate Taras Natyshak has been the MPP for this riding since 2011. The Conservatives’ former candidate Dave Brister made headlines when the party fired him for speaking out against Tim Hudak’s support of right-to-work legislation, a policy the party later repudiated. Candidate Ray Cecile won the nomination to take up the Conservative banner, with LaSalle Coun. Crystal Meloche running for the Liberals.

Chatham-Kent-Essex

Just like in Windsor-Tecumseh, there are currently no confirmed challengers to Rick Nicholls, the incumbent Conservative MPP. A representative from the Liberal riding association said the organization has set a tentative date for a nomination meeting on May 10.

]]>http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/whos-running/feed0clairebrownellMeeting for former Cedar Springs residents entitled to class action payouthttp://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/meeting-for-former-cedar-springs-residents-entitled-to-class-action-payout
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/meeting-for-former-cedar-springs-residents-entitled-to-class-action-payout#commentsFri, 09 May 2014 00:49:37 +0000http://blogs.windsorstar.com/?p=342129]]>Legal Assistance of Windsor is inviting former residents of three homes for the developmentally disabled to learn how to apply for a payout from a class action settlement for abuse they suffered.

A class action lawsuit launched on behalf of about 4,300 former residents of the Rideau Regional Centre in Smiths Falls, Ont., which opened in 1951, and the Southwestern Regional Centre near Chatham, which opened in 1961, ended in a $32.7 million settlement in February. The settlement was similar to a $32.7-million deal reached the year before over the Huronia Regional Centre in Orillia.

Premier Kathleen Wynne apologized to former residents of the Southwestern Regional Centre, also known as Cedar Springs, in April. Many of the thousands of residents suffered physical and sexual abuse at the overcrowded and understaffed prison-like institutions.

Marion Overholt of Legal Assistance of Windsor estimates there are about 100 people living in the Windsor region who are eligible to collect on the settlement. Legal Assistance of Windsor is partnering with a Toronto legal clinic that specializes in disability law to hold two meetings to get the word out and explain how the application process works.

The Southwestern Regional Centre, also known as Cedar Springs. (Courtesy of Chatham Daily News files)

Overholt said it’s important to encourage people to apply and help them through the process, since they may not be inclined to relive the past. “For some people, they’re not going to want to make an application because they’re not even going to want to think about that period of time.”

Anyone who was a resident of the Southwestern Regional Centre between 1963 and 2009 is eligible to apply before the Aug. 5 deadline. The amount of money former residents are entitled to depends on the severity of the abuse they suffered and the number of institutions they lived at, since they can file a separate claim for each one.

Overholt said the premier’s apology and commemorative plaques planned for each site are just as important as the money. “As a community, I think it’s important that this settlement has been reached and the government has taken these steps to recognize that this situation happened, that it shouldn’t have happened and that people were entitled to live in a way that they were respected and treated with dignity.”

Find Windsor Star on Facebook]]>http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/meeting-for-former-cedar-springs-residents-entitled-to-class-action-payout/feed0Steve Reh, 50, a former resident of Southwestern Regional Centre from the age of seven to 17, looks out the window of his high-rise apartment in Windsor, Ont., Saturday, Dec. 28, 2013. Reh is one of at least 8 plaintiffs from the Windsor area involved in a class action lawsuit launched against the province for alleged mental and physical abuse. (DAX MELMER/The Windsor Star)clairebrownellThe Southwestern Regional Centre, also known as Cedar Springs. (Courtesy of Chatham Daily News files)